The original page 13 of the Codex Borbonicus, showing the 13th trecena of the Aztec sacred calendar. This 13th trecena was under the auspices of the goddess Tlazolteotl, who is shown on the upper left wearing a flayed skin, giving birth to Cinteotl, the 13 day-signs of this trecena, starting with 1 Earthquake, 2 Flint/Knife, 3 Rain, etc., are shown on the bottom row and the column along the right side.

A trecena is a 13-day period used in pre-ColumbianMesoamerican calendars, the 260-day calendar (the tonalpohualli) was divided into 20 trecenas. Trecena is derived from the Spanish chroniclers and translates to "a group of thirteen" in the same way that a dozen (or in Spanish docena) relates to the number twelve, it is associated with the Aztecs, but is called different names in the calendars of the Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, and others of the region.

Many surviving Mesoamerican codices, such as Codex Borbonicus, are divinitory calendars, based on the 260-day year, with each page representing one trecena.

1.
Codex Borbonicus
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The Codex Borbonicus is an Aztec codex written by Aztec priests shortly before or after the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The codex is named after the Palais Bourbon in France and it is held at the Bibliothèque de lAssemblée Nationale in Paris. In 2004 Maarten Jansen and Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez proposed that it be given the indigenous name Codex Cihuacoatl, the Codex Borbonicus is a single 46. 5-foot long sheet of amatl paper. Although there were originally 40 accordion-folded pages, the first two and the last two pages are missing, like all pre-Columbian codices, it was originally entirely pictorial in nature, although some Spanish descriptions were later added. There is dispute as to whether the Codex Borbonicus is pre-Columbian, Codex Borbonicus can be divided into three sections, The first section is one of the most intricate surviving divinatory calendars. Each page represents one of the 20 trecena, in the tonalpohualli, most of the page is taken up with a painting of the ruling deity or deities, with the remainder taken up with the 13 day-signs of the trecena and 13 other glyphs and deities. With these 26 symbols, the priests were able to create horoscopes, the first 18 pages of the codex show considerably more wear than the last sections, very likely indicating that these pages were consulted more often. The second section of the documents the Mesoamerican 52-year cycle. These days are correlated with the nine Lords of the Night, the third section is focused on rituals and ceremonies, particularly those that end the 52-year cycle, when the new fire must be lit. Aztec calendar Aztec codices Codex Borgia Famsi. org, Links to each of the 36 pages of Codex Borbonicus The Guardian Aztec manuscript under the microscope

2.
Tlazolteotl
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In Aztec mythology, Tlazolteotl is a goddess of purification, steam bath, midwives, filth, and a patroness of adulterers. In Nahuatl, the word tlazolli can refer to vice and diseases, thus, Tlazolteotl was a goddess of filth, vice, and sexual misdeeds. However, she was a goddess as well, who forgave sins and cured diseases caused by misdeeds. Her dual nature is seen in her epithets, Tlaelquani and Tlazolmiquiztli, under the designation of Ixcuinan she was thought to be plural in number and four sisters of different ages by the names Tiacapan, Teicu, Tlaco and Xocotzin. Her son was Centeotl and she was known as Toci. She presides over the 13th trecena of the sacred 260-day year, another son is Yum-Kax, the Maya maize god. Tlazolteotl may have originally been a Huaxtec goddess from the Gulf Coast and it is said that when a man confessed before Tlazolteotl everything was revealed. Confession to Tlazolteotl would be done through a priest but, unlike the Christian practice, according to Aztec belief, it was Tlazolteotl who inspired vicious desires, and who likewise forgave and cleaned away the defilement of sin. She was also thought to cause disease, especially sexually transmitted disease and it was said that Tlazolteotl and her companions would afflict people with disease if they indulged themselves in forbidden love. The uncleanliness was considered both on a physical and moral level, and could be cured by steam bath, a rite of purification, or calling upon Tlazolteteo, the goddesses of love and desires. Tlazolteotl was called Goddess of Dirt and Eater of Ordure, with her nature of goddess of dirt. Her dirt-eating symbolized the ingestion of the sin of those who confessed and she was depicted with ochre colored symbols of divine excrement around her mouth and nose. She had the function of creating harmony again in the community, Tlazolteotl was one of the primary Aztec deities celebrated in the festival of Ochpaniztli that was held September 2–21 to recognize the harvest season. The ceremonies conducted during this timeframe included ritual cleaning, sweeping, and repairing, as well as the casting of corn seed, dances, Centeotl Xochiquetzal Xochipilli Tezcatlipoca Soustelle, J. O. Anderson and Charles Dibble, Monographs of the school of American research, parts Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press Townsend, R. F. The Aztecs Revised Edition, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London

3.
Cinteotl
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In Aztec mythology, Centeōtl is the maize deity. Cintli means dried maize still on the cob and teōtl means deity, according to the Florentine Codex, Centeotl is the son of the earth goddess, Tlazolteotl and solar deity Piltzintecuhtli, the planet Mercury. Born on the day-sign 1 Xochitl, another myth claims him as the son of the goddess Xochiquetzal. The majority of evidence gathered on Centeotl suggests that he is portrayed as a young man. Some specialists believe that Centeotl used to be the maize goddess Chicomecōātl, Centeotl was considered one of the most important deities of the Aztec era. There are many features that are shown in depictions of Centeotl. For example, there seems to be maize in his headdress. Another striking trait is the line passing down his eyebrow, through his cheek. These face markings are similarly and frequently used in the late post-classic depictions of a Mayan maize god, according to sources Cinteotl is the god of maize and subsistence and Centeotl corresponds to Chicomecoatl, the goddess of agriculture. In the Tonalpohualli, Centeotl is the Lord of the Day for days with number seven, in Aztec mythology, maize was brought to this world by Quetzalcoatl and it is associated with the group of stars known commonly today as the Pleiades. At the beginning of the year, Aztec workers would plant the young maize and these young maize plants potentially were used as symbolism for a pretty goddess, most likely Chicomecōātl, Princess of the Unripe Maize. Chicomecōātl is usually depicted carrying fresh maize in her hands, bare-breasted, an interesting conflict exists in that some historians believe Chicomecōātl, otherwise known as the hairy one and Centeotl are the same deity. When the seeds were planted, a ritual dance occurred in order to thank Mother Earth and these dances became increasingly more prominent as the warmth of the sun brought about great prosperity for the Aztecs in the form of sprouting maize canes. This festival has been compared to the more Western maypole festival due to the similarity of their celebrations and these festivals were probably very pleasant for the Aztecs, judging by similar festivals in other civilizations. A major custom in Mexico during this period was for female Aztecs, regardless of marital status to loosen their ponchos. They would proceed to dance bare-breasted in the fields in order to thank Centeotl for his work. Then each female would pick five ears of corn from the field, women in these processions were the promises of food and life in the Aztec world. Traditionally massive fights would break out as people tried to soak one another in flower pollen or scented maize flour, also flower petals were thrown in ceremonial fashion over people who were carrying the ears of corn

4.
Pre-Columbian era
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For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are also in use. In areas of Latin America the term used is Pre-Hispanic. Other civilizations were contemporary with the period and were described in European historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya civilization, had their own written records, because many Christian Europeans of the time viewed such texts as heretical, men like Diego de Landa destroyed many texts in pyres, even while seeking to preserve native histories. Only a few documents have survived in their original languages, while others were transcribed or dictated into Spanish, giving modern historians glimpses of ancient culture. Indigenous American cultures continue to evolve after the pre-Columbian era, many of these peoples and their descendants continue traditional practices, while evolving and adapting new cultural practices and technologies into their lives. Now, the study of pre-Columbian cultures is most often based on scientific. Asian nomads are thought to have entered the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge, now the Bering Strait, genetic evidence found in Amerindians maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia. Over the course of millennia, Paleo-Indians spread throughout North and South America, exactly when the first group of people migrated into the Americas is the subject of much debate. One of the earliest identifiable cultures was the Clovis culture, with sites dating from some 13,000 years ago, however, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been claimed. Some genetic studies estimate the colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago, the chronology of migration models is currently divided into two general approaches. The first is the short chronology theory with the first movement beyond Alaska into the New World occurring no earlier than 14, 000–17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants. The second belief is the long chronology theory, which proposes that the first group of people entered the hemisphere at an earlier date, possibly 50. In that case, the Eskimo peoples would have arrived separately and at a later date, probably no more than 2,000 years ago. The North American climate was unstable as the ice age receded and it finally stabilized by about 10,000 years ago, climatic conditions were then very similar to todays. Within this timeframe, roughly pertaining to the Archaic Period, numerous archaeological cultures have been identified, the unstable climate led to widespread migration, with early Paleo-Indians soon spreading throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct tribes. The paleo-indians were hunter-gatherers, likely characterized by small, mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family and these groups moved from place to place as preferred resources were depleted and new supplies were sought. During much of the Paleo-Indian period, bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct giant land animals such as mastodon, Paleo-Indian groups carried a variety of tools

5.
Mesoamerican calendars
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Mesoamerican calendars are the calendrical systems devised and used by the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. Besides keeping time, Mesoamerican calendars were used in religious observances and social rituals. The existence of Mesoamerican calendars is known as early as ca.500 BCE, with the essentials already appearing fully defined and these calendars are still used today in the Guatemalan highlands, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico. Among the various systems in use, two were particularly central and widespread across Mesoamerica. Common to all recorded Mesoamerican cultures, and the most important, was the 260-day calendar, apparently the earliest Mesoamerican calendar to be developed, it was known by a variety of local terms, and its named components and the glyphs used to depict them were similarly culture-specific. However, it is clear that this calendar functioned in essentially the same way across cultures, the second of the major calendars was one representing a 365-day period approximating the tropical year, known sometimes as the vague year. Because it was an approximation, over time the seasons and the tropical year gradually wandered with respect to this calendar. There is little evidence to suggest that the ancient Mesoamericans used any intercalary days to bring their calendar back into alignment. However, there is evidence to show Mesoamericans were aware of this gradual shifting and these two 260- and 365-day calendars could also be synchronised to generate the Calendar Round, a period of 18980 days or approximately 52 years. The completion and observance of this Calendar Round sequence was of significance to a number of Mesoamerican cultures. Most commonly, five such cycles in a modified vigesimal count were used. The use of Mesoamerican calendrics is one of the traits that Paul Kirchoff used in his original formulation to define Mesoamerica as a culture area. Therefore, the use of Mesoamerican calendars is specific to Mesoamerica and is not found outside its boundaries, in the 260-day cycle 20 day names pairs with 13 day numbers, totalling a cycle of 260 days. This cycle was used for purposes to foretell lucky and unlucky days. The date of birth was used to give names to both humans and gods in many Mesoamerican cultures, some cultures used only the calendar name whereas others combined it with a given name. Each day sign was presided over by a god and many had associations with natural phenomena. The exact origin of the 260-day count is not known, one theory is that the calendar came from mathematical operations based on the numbers thirteen and twenty, which were important numbers to the Maya. The numbers multiplied together equal 260, another theory is that the 260-day period came from the length of human pregnancy

6.
Calendar
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A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, a date is the designation of a single, specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a record of such a system. A calendar can also mean a list of planned events, such as a calendar or a partly or fully chronological list of documents. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not necessarily, synchronized with the cycle of the sun or the moon. The most common type of calendar was the lunisolar calendar. Latin calendarium meant account book, register, the Latin term was adopted in Old French as calendier and from there in Middle English as calender by the 13th century. The course of the Sun and the Moon are the most evident forms of timekeeping, nevertheless, the Roman calendar contained very ancient remnants of a pre-Etruscan 10-month solar year. The first recorded calendars date to the Bronze Age, dependent on the development of writing in the Ancient Near East, a larger number of calendar systems of the Ancient Near East becomes accessible in the Iron Age, based on the Babylonian calendar. This includes the calendar of the Persian Empire, which in turn gave rise to the Zoroastrian calendar as well as the Hebrew calendar, calendars in antiquity were lunisolar, depending on the introduction of intercalary months to align the solar and the lunar years. This was mostly based on observation, but there may have been attempts to model the pattern of intercalation algorithmically. The Roman calendar was reformed by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, the Julian calendar was no longer dependent on the observation of the new moon but simply followed an algorithm of introducing a leap day every four years. This created a dissociation of the month from the lunation. The Islamic calendar is based on the prohibition of intercalation by Muhammad and this resulted in an observationally based lunar calendar that shifts relative to the seasons of the solar year. The first calendar reform of the modern era was the Gregorian calendar. Such ideas are mooted from time to time but have failed to gain traction because of the loss of continuity, massive upheaval in implementation, a full calendar system has a different calendar date for every day. Thus the week cycle is by not a full calendar system. The simplest calendar system just counts time periods from a reference date and this applies for the Julian day or Unix Time

7.
Tonalpohualli
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The tonalpohualli Nahuatl pronunciation, a Nahuatl word meaning count of days, is an Aztec version of the 260-day calendar in use in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. This calendar is neither solar nor lunar, but rather consists of 20, each trecena is ruled by a different deity. The basis of the tonalpohualli, is unknown, the other major Aztec calendar, the xiuhpohualli, is a 365-day year, based on 18 months of 20 days and five nameless days. A xiuhpohualli was designated by the name of its first tonalpohualli day, for example, Hernán Cortés met Moctezuma II on the day 8 Wind in the year 1 Reed. The xiuhpohualli and the tonalpohualli would coincide approximately every 52 years, note that the symbols are arranged counterclockwise around the calendar stone

8.
Aztec
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The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to 16th centuries. The Nahuatl words aztecatl and aztecah mean people from Aztlan, a place for the Nahuatl-speaking culture of the time. Often the term Aztec refers exclusively to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan, situated on an island in Lake Texcoco, who referred to themselves as Mēxihcah Tenochcah or Cōlhuah Mexihcah. From the 13th century, the Valley of Mexico was the heart of Aztec civilization, here the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the Triple Alliance formed a tributary empire expanding its political hegemony far beyond the Valley of Mexico, conquering other city states throughout Mesoamerica. At its pinnacle, Aztec culture had rich and complex mythological and religious traditions, as well as achieving remarkable architectural and artistic accomplishments. Subsequently, the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital, the term extends to further ethnic groups associated with the Aztec empire such as the Acolhua and Tepanec and others that were incorporated into the empire. In older usage the term was used about modern Nahuatl speaking ethnic groups. In recent usage these ethnic groups are referred to as the Nahua peoples. Linguistically the term Aztecan is still used about the branch of the Uto-Aztecan languages that includes the Nahuatl language and its closest relatives Pochutec, to the Aztecs themselves the word aztec was not an endonym for any particular ethnic group. Rather it was a term used to refer to several ethnic groups, not all of them Nahuatl speaking. In the Nahuatl language aztecatl means person from Aztlan and this usage has been the subject of debate in more recent years, but the term Aztec is still more common. For the same reason the notion of Aztec civilization is best understood as a horizon of a general Mesoamerican civilization. Particular to the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan was the Mexica patron God Huitzilopochtli, twin pyramids, the Aztec Empire was a tribute empire based in Tenochtitlan that extended its power throughout Mesoamerica in the late postclassic period. Soon Texcoco and Tlacopan became junior partners in the alliance, which was de facto led by the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, the empire extended its power by a combination of trade and military conquest. The political clout of the empire reached far south into Mesoamerica conquering cities as far south as Chiapas and Guatemala, the Nahua peoples began to migrate into Mesoamerica from northern Mexico in the 6th century. They populated central Mexico, dislocating speakers of Oto-Manguean languages as they spread their influence south. As the former nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples mixed with the civilizations of Mesoamerica, adopting religious and cultural practices. During the Postclassic period they rose to power at such sites as Tula, in the 12th century the Nahua power center was in Azcapotzalco, from where the Tepanecs dominated the valley of Mexico

9.
Maya civilization
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The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. The Archaic period, prior to 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture, the first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC, in the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop a number of city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful, the Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, in the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonized the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city in 1697. Classic period rule was centred on the concept of the divine king, kingship was patrilineal, and power would normally pass to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader. Maya politics was dominated by a system of patronage, although the exact political make-up of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic, the aristocracy had greatly increased, resulting in the reduction in the exclusive power of the divine king. Maya cities tended to expand haphazardly, and the city centre would be occupied by ceremonial and administrative complexes, different parts of a city would often be linked by causeways. The principal architecture of the city consisted of palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, the Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing that was the most advanced in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, there are also a great many examples of Maya text found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a complex series of interlocking ritual calendars. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice, the Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide, the Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems

10.
Zapotec civilization
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The Zapotec civilization was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence shows that their culture goes back at least 2,500 years, the Zapotec left archaeological evidence at the ancient city of Monte Albán in the form of buildings, ball courts, magnificent tombs and grave goods including finely worked gold jewelry. Monte Albán was one of the first major cities in Mesoamerica, Zapotec civilization had its beginnings in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca in the late 6th Century BC. The three valleys were divided between three different-sized societies, separated by 80 km2 “no-man’s-land” in the middle, today occupied by the city of Oaxaca, archaeological evidence from the period, such as burned temples and sacrificed captives, suggest that the three societies competed against each other. At the end of the Rosario phase the valleys largest settlement San José Mogote, during the same period a new large settlement emerged in the “no-man’s-land”. That settlement, which was constructed on top of a mountain overlooking the three Central valleys was Monte Albán, similarities between the pottery of San José Mogote and at early Monte Albán indicate that the people who populated Monte Albán were the same ones who had left San José Mogote. The Zapotec state formed at Monte Albán began an expansion during the late Monte Alban 1 phase, Zapotec rulers seized control over the provinces outside the valley of Oaxaca. They were able to do this during Monte Alban 1c to Monte Alban 2 because none of the provinces could compete with the valley of Oaxaca both politically and militarily. By 200 AD the Zapotecs had extended their influence, from Quiotepec in the North to Ocelotepec and Chiltepec in the South, Monte Albán had become the largest city in what are today the southern Mexican highlands, and retained this status until approximately 700 AD. The expansion of the Zapotec empire peaked during the Monte Alban II phase, Zapotecs conquered or colonized settlements far beyond The Valley of Oaxaca. Most notably, this expansion is visible in the change of ceramics found in regions outside the valley. These regions own unique styles were replaced with Zapotec style pottery. What today is referred to as building J, is shaped like an arrowhead, the glyphs have been interpreted by archaeologists to represent the provinces that were controlled by the Zapotecs of Monte Albán. In addition, each group also depicts a head with an elaborate head dress carved into the slabs. These are assumed to illustrate the rulers of the provinces who were taken over, small polities, seeing that resistance would be futile, may accept a face-saving offer. Larger polities unwilling to lose their autonomy may have to be subdued militarily, during the expansion of Monte Alban 2 state, we think we see both colonization and conquest. The name Zapotec is an exonym coming from Nahuatl tzapotēcah, which inhabitants of the place of sapote. The Zapotec referred to themselves by some variant of the term Beenaa, the Zapotec languages belong to a language family called Oto-manguean, an ancient family of Mesoamerican languages

11.
Mixtec
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The Mixtec region and the Mixtec peoples are traditionally divided into three groups, two based on their original economic caste and one based on the region they settled. High Mixtecs or mixteco alto were of the class and generally richer. In recent times, a reversal or equalizing has been seen. The third group is Coastal Mixtecs mixteco de la costa whose language is related to that of the Low Mixtecs, they currently inhabit the Pacific slope of Oaxaca. The Mixtec languages form a branch of the Otomanguean language family. In pre-Columbian times, a number of Mixtecan city states competed with each other, like the rest of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, the Mixtec were conquered by the Spanish invaders and their indigenous allies in the 16th century. Pre-Columbia Mixtecs numbered around 1.5 million, today there are approximately 800,000 Mixtec people in Mexico, and there are also large populations in the United States. The term Mixtec comes from the Nahuatl word mixtecah, cloud people, there are many names that the Mixtecs have for naming themselves, ñuù savi, nayívi savi, ñuù davi, nayivi davi. etc. This all denominations can be translated as people of the rain, the historic homeland of Mixtec people is La Mixteca, called in Mixtec language Ñuu Savi, Ñuu Djau, Ñuu Davi, etc. depending on the local variant. They call their language saan davi, daan davi or tuun savi, in pre-Columbian times, the Mixtec were one of the major civilizations of Mesoamerica. Important ancient centres of the Mixtec include the ancient capital of Tilantongo, as well as the sites of Achiutla, Cuilapan, Huajuapan, Mitla, Tlaxiaco, Tututepec, Juxtlahuaca, the Mixtec also made major constructions at the ancient city of Monte Albán. The work of Mixtec artisans who produced work in stone, wood, according to West, the Mixtec of Oaxaca. were the foremost goldsmiths of Mesoamerica, which included the lost-wax casting of gold and its alloys. At the height of the Aztec Empire, many Mixtecs paid tribute to the Aztecs and they put up resistance to Spanish rule until they were subdued by the Spanish and their central Mexican allies led by Pedro de Alvarado. Mixtecs have migrated to parts of both Mexico and the United States. In recent years a large exodus of indigenous peoples from Oaxaca, such as the Zapotec, as of 2011, an estimated 150,000 Mixteco people were living in California, and 25,000 to 30,000 in New York City. Large Mixtec communities exist in the cities of Tijuana, Baja California, San Diego, California and Tucson. Mixtec communities are generally described as trans-national or trans-border because of their ability to maintain, there is considerable documentation in the Mixtec native language for the colonial era, which has been studied as part of the New Philology. There is considerable Mixtec documentation for land issues, but sparse for market activity, long distance trade existed in the prehispanic era and continued in indigenous hands in the early colonial

12.
Cipactli
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Cipactli Crocodile or Caiman, was the first day of the Aztec divinatory count of 13 X20 days, and Cipactonal Sign of Cipactli was considered to have been the first diviner. In Aztec cosmology, the crocodile symbolized the earth floating in the primeval waters, according to one Aztec tradition, Teocipactli Divine Crocodile was the name of a survivor of the flood who rescued himself in a canoe and again peopled the earth. In the Mixtec Vienna Codex, Crocodile is a day associated with dynastic beginnings, in Aztec mythology, Cipactli was a primeval sea monster, part crocodilian, part fish and part toad or frog, with indefinite gender. Always hungry, every joint on its body was adorned with an extra mouth, the deity Tezcatlipoca sacrificed a foot when he used it as bait to draw the monster nearer. He and Quetzalcoatl created the earth from its body, in the Maya tzolkin the day Cipactli corresponds to Imix. In the Mayan Popol Vuh, the name of the demon, Sipakna. Sipakna is the demon Sipak of 20th-century Highland Maya oral tradition, brundage, Burr Cartwright, The Fifth Sun. Tiamat in Mesopotamian mythology Fenrir and Ymir in Norse mythology Sedna in Inuit mythology Aztec calendar Five suns Leviathan

13.
Tonacatecuhtli
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In Aztec mythology, Tonacatecuhtli was a creator and fertility god, worshiped for peopling the earth and making it fruitful. Most Colonial-era manuscripts equate him with Ōmetēuctli, the gods name is a compound of two Nahuatl words, tōnacā and tēcuhtli. While tēcuhtli is generally translated lord, tōnacā presents several possible interpretations, some read this root as tonacā, consisting of nacatl, meaning human flesh or food, with the possessive prefix to. By this etymology, Tonacātēcuhtli would mean Lord of Our Food or Lord of Our Flesh and it should be noted, however that the word tōnac simply means abundance, giving Tōnacātēcuhtli the alternate reading Lord of Abundance. Tōnacātēcuhtli was the Central Mexican form of the creator god common to Mesoamerican religion. Tōnacātēcuhtli is associated with procreation, appearing in pre-Columbian art near copulating humans, in the Florentine Codex, Sahagún relates that Aztec midwives would tell newborns after bathing them, You were created in the place of duality, the place above the nine heavens. Your mother and father—Ōmetēuctli and Ōmecihuātl, the heavenly woman—formed you, in terms of the Aztec calendar, Tōnacātēcuhtli was the patron of Cipactli, the first of the twenty days in a month, as well as presiding over the trecena named 1 Cipactli. In the Codex Chimalpopoca, Tōnacātēcuhtli and Tōnacācihuātl are listed as one of pairs of gods to whom Quetzalcoatl prays

14.
Ehecatl
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Ehecatl is a pre-Columbian deity associated with the wind, who features in Aztec mythology and the mythologies of other cultures from the central Mexico region of Mesoamerica. He is most usually interpreted as the aspect of the Feathered Serpent deity as a god of wind, Ehecatl also figures prominently as one of the creator gods and culture heroes in the mythical creation accounts documented for pre-Columbian central Mexican cultures. Since the wind blows in all directions, Ehecatl was associated with all the cardinal directions and his temple was built as a cylinder in order to reduce the air resistance, and was sometimes portrayed with two protruding masks through which the wind blew

15.
Quetzalcoatl
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Quetzalcoatl forms part of Mesoamerican literature and is a deity whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and means feathered serpent. The worship of a serpent is first documented in Teotihuacan in the first century BC or first century AD. That period lies within the Late Preclassic to Early Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology, in the Postclassic period, the worship of the feathered serpent deity was based in the primary Mexican religious center of Cholula. It is in period that the deity is known to have been named Quetzalcoatl by his Nahua followers. In the Maya area, he was approximately equivalent to Kukulkan and Gukumatz, Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of wind and learning, wears around his neck the wind breastplate ehecailacocozcatl, the spirally voluted wind jewel made of a conch shell. In codex drawings, Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl were both pictured as wearing an ehecailacocozcatl around each of their necks. There has additionally been at least one major cache of offerings with knives and idols adorned with the symbols of more than one god, some of which were adorned with wind jewels. It is a matter of debate among historians to which degree, or whether at all. He was also the god of the Aztec priesthood, of learning. Quetzalcoatl was one of several important gods in the Aztec pantheon, along with the gods Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca, two other gods represented by the planet Venus are Quetzalcoatls ally Tlaloc who is the god of rain, and Quetzalcoatls twin and psychopomp, who is named Xolotl. Animals thought to represent Quetzalcoatl include resplendent quetzals, rattlesnakes, crows, in his form as Ehecatl he is the wind, and is represented by spider monkeys, ducks, and the wind itself. In his form as the star, Venus, he is also depicted as a harpy eagle. In Mazatec legends, the astrologer deity Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, who is represented by Venus. A feathered serpent deity has been worshiped by many different ethno-political groups in Mesoamerican history, the existence of such worship can be seen through studies of iconography of different Mesoamerican cultures, in which serpent motifs are frequent. This depiction is believed to have made around 900 BC. The first culture to use the symbol of a serpent as an important religious. At temples such as the aptly named Quetzalcoatl temple in the Ciudadela complex, feathered serpents figure prominently, the earliest depictions of the feathered serpent deity were fully zoomorphic, depicting the serpent as an actual snake, but already among the Classic Maya the deity began acquiring human features. Feathered serpent iconography is prominent at all of these sites, Cholula is known to have remained the most important center of worship to Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec/Nahua version of the feathered serpent deity, in the post-classic period

16.
Tepeyollotl
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In Aztec mythology, Tepēyōllōtl Nahuatl pronunciation, was the god of earthquakes, echoes and jaguars. He is the god of the Eighth Hour of the Night, in the calendar, Tepeyollotl rules over both the third day, Calli, and the third trecena, 1-Mazatl. He is the eighth Lord of the Night, the word is derived as a compound of the Nahuatl words tepētl, and yōllōtl. Tepeyollotl is usually depicted as cross-eyed holding the white staff with green feathers. Sometimes Tezcatlipoca wore Tepeyollotl for a skin or disguise to trick other gods into not knowing who he was

17.
Huehuecoyotl
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In Aztec mythology, Huehuecóyotl is the auspicious god of music, dance, mischief and song of Pre-Columbian Mexico. The name Very old coyote conveyed positive meanings for the Aztec populace, coyotes were an Aztec symbol of astuteness and worldly-wisdom, pragmatism and male beauty and youthfulness. The prefix huehue which in Nahuatl means very old was attached to gods in Aztec mythology that were revered for their old age, wisdom, philosophical insights, although often appearing in stories as male, Huehuecóyotl can be gender changing, as many of the offspring of Tezcatlipoca. He can be associated with indulgence, male sexuality, good luck, as all Aztec deities, Huehuecóyotl was dualistic in his exercise of good and evil. He was perceived as a god, depictions of his dark side include a coyote appearance with black or yellow feathers. In most depictions of Huehuecóyotl, he is followed by a drummer or groups of humans that appear to be friendly to him. A great party-giver, he also was alleged to foment wars between humans to relieve his boredom and he is a part of the Tezcatlipoca family of the Mexica gods, and has their shapeshifting powers. Those who had indications of evil fates from other gods would sometimes appeal to Huehuecóyotl to mitigate or reverse their fate, Huehuecóyotl shares many characteristics with the trickster Coyote of the North American tribes, including storytelling and choral singing. The fourth day of the thirteen day Mexican week belonged to Huehuecóyotl and he was the only friend to Xolotl who is the god of twins, sickness and deformity and accompanies the dead to Mictlan. Their association is born from the nature of both gods. Karl Young, The Continuum of Life in Codex Borbonicus

18.
Macuilxochitl
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Xochipilli was the god of art, games, beauty, dance, flowers, and song in Aztec mythology. His name contains the Nahuatl words xochitl and pilli, and hence means flower prince, as the patron of writing and painting, he was called Chicomexochitl the Seven-flower, but he could also be referred to as Macuilxochitl Five-flower. His wife was the human girl Mayahuel, and his sister was Xochiquetzal. As one of the responsible for fertility and agricultural produce, he was also associated with Tlaloc. Xochipilli corresponds to the Tonsured Maize God among the Classic Mayas, Xochipilli was also the patron of both homosexuals and male prostitutes, a role possibly resulting from his being absorbed from the Toltec civilization. He, among other gods, was depicted wearing a talisman known as an oyohualli, in the mid-19th century, a 16th-century Aztec statue of Xochipilli was unearthed on the side of the volcano Popocatépetl near Tlalmanalco. The statue is of a figure seated upon a temple-like base. The texts always use the flower in a spiritual sense. The association of the flower with the sun is also evident, one of the hieroglyphs for the sun is a four-petalled flower, and the feasts of the ninth month, dedicated to Huitzilopochtliupo, were entirely given over to flower offerings. The figure himself sits on the base, head tilted up, eyes open, jaw tensed, with his half open. The statue is housed in the Aztec hall of the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. It has been suggested by Wasson, Schultes, and Hofmann that the statue of Xochipilli represents a figure in the throes of entheogenic ecstasy. Wasson says that in the statues depiction Xochipilli is absorbed by temicxoch, dream flowers, I can think of nothing like it in the long and rich history of European art, Xochipilli absorbed in temicxoch. Maya maize god Media related to Xochipilli at Wikimedia Commons J. Paul Getty Museums in-depth interactive exploring the Museo Nacional de Antropologías 15th-century basalt figure of Xochipilli, includes a detailed exploration of psychotropic plants depicted

19.
Chalchiuhtlicue
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Chalchiuhtlicue was an Aztec goddess of water, rivers, seas, streams, storms, and baptism, related to another water god, Chalchiuhtlatonal. Reputedly universally revered at the time of the Spanish conquest, she was an important deity figure in the Postclassic Aztec realm of central Mexico, Chalchiuhtlicue was also patroness of childbirth. She was also called Matlalcueitl by the Tlaxcalans, enemies of the Aztecs, chalchiuitlicues name literally means Jade her skirt, but it is usually translated as she of the jade skirt. She was also known as Matlalcueitl Owner of the green skirt and this goddess was the wife of the rain god, Tlaloc. Like other water deities, she was associated with serpents. She was the mother of Tecciztecatl, an Aztec moon god and he was called he who comes from the land of the sea-slug shell because of the similarity between the moon and the slug. Tecciztecatl was portrayed as an old man who carries a white seashell on his back. Most legends of Chalchiuhtlicue say that she was married to the god of rain. In some myths she was his sister, Chalchiuhtlicue helped Tlaloc rule the kingdom of Tlalocan. She built a bridge linking heaven and earth and those who were in Chalchiuhtlicues good graces were allowed to traverse it, the other residents of the earth were turned into fish so they wouldnt drown. Chalchiuhtlicue used the flood as an act of purification of human kind, because of this flood we are believed to live in the Fifth World. In some myths, Chalchiuhtlicue was wife of Xiuhtecuhtli, senior deity of the Aztec pantheon, according to Aztec legend, Chalchiuhtlicue at one point devoured the sun and moon. In 2008, archaeologists led by Saburo Sugiyama found a tomb containing important evidence that may define and examine an active period in Teotihuacán history. Teotihuacán was the largest city in Mesoamerica with over 100,000 residents and it is here that the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon were built. The Pyramid of the Sun was built for Tlaloc and the Pyramid of the Moon built for Chalchiuhtlicue, the tomb that Saburo Sugiyama found was dedicated to Chalchiuhtlicue. It housed a human male sacrifice along with a wolf, jaguar, puma, serpent, bird, skeletons. Among some of these artifacts were large greenstone and obsidian figurines, ceremonial knives, the archaeologists also found frescos of former religions painted in red and green, some referred to agricultural and natural rain cycles. When looking underneath the Pyramid of the Moon, a Chalchiuhtlicue statue was found and has since moved to El Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City. Also found underneath the pyramid were many tombs containing ornaments of birds, for the Aztecs, Chalchiuhtlicue was the water goddess who was a personification of youthful beauty and ardor

20.
Tonatiuh
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In Aztec mythology, Tonatiuh was the sun god. The Aztec people considered him the leader of Tollan, heaven and he was also known as the fifth sun, because the Aztecs believed that he was the sun that took over when the fourth sun was expelled from the sky. Aztec theology held that each sun was a god with its own cosmic era, according to the Aztec creation myth, the god demanded human sacrifice as tribute and without it would refuse to move through the sky. The Aztecs were fascinated by the sun and carefully observed it, many of todays remaining Aztec monuments have structures aligned with the sun. In the Aztec calendar, Tonatiuh is the lord of the thirteen days from 1 Death to 13 Flint, the preceding thirteen days are ruled over by Chalchiuhtlicue, and the following thirteen by Tlaloc. Aztec calendar stone Pedro de Alvarado Windows to The Universe page on Tonatiuh

21.
Tecciztecatl
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In Aztec mythology, Tecciztecatl was a lunar deity, representing the old man-in-the-moon. The Aztecs believed that they were living in a universe dominated by a generation of sun gods, the first three previous suns perished by wind storms, jaguars and fiery rain. The fourth was wiped out by a flood when people turned into fish, after the fourth sun perished, the Aztecs believed that the gods assembled to decide which god was to become the next sun. They built a bonfire to sacrifice the next volunteer, two gods – Nanahuatzin and Tecciztecatl – vied for the honor. Nanauatl, a god, was chosen because he could be spared. Proud Tecciztecatl insisted on the honor, but at the last moment hesitated, Nanahuatzin showed more courage and jumped into the fire. Tecciztecatl gained his courage and followed Nanauatl, thus forming two suns in the sky, in some depictions, Tecciztecatl carried a large, white seashell on his back, representing the moon itself, in others he had butterfly wings. He was a son of Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue

22.
Tlaloc
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For the fictional character from the Legends of Dune books, see Titan #Tlaloc. Tlaloc was part of the pantheon of gods in Aztec religion, as supreme god of the rain, Tlaloc was also by extension a god of earthly fertility and of water. Tlaloc is also associated with caves, springs, and mountains and his animal forms include herons and water-dwelling creatures such as amphibians, snails, and possibly sea creatures, particularly shellfish. The Mexican marigold, Tagetes lucida, known to the Aztecs as yauhtli, was another important symbol of the god, the cult of Tlaloc is one of the oldest and most universal in ancient Mexico. An underground Tlaloc shrine has been found at Teotihuacan, in Aztec cosmology, the four corners of the universe are marked by the four Tlalocs which both hold up the sky and function as the frame for the passing of time. Tlaloc was the patron of the Calendar day Mazātl, in Aztec mythology, Tlaloc was the lord of the third sun which was destroyed by fire. Additionally, Tlaloc is thought to be one of the deities of the trecena of 1 Quiahuitl. Trecenas are the thirteen-day periods into which the 260-day calendar is divided, the first day of each trecena dictates the augury, or omen, and the patron deity or deities associated with the trecena. In the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, one of the two shrines on top of the Great Temple was dedicated to Tlaloc, the high priest who was in charge of the Tlaloc shrine was called Quetzalcoatl Tlaloc Tlamacazqui. It was the northernmost side of temple that was dedicated to Tlaloc. In this area, a bowl was kept in which sacrificial hearts placed on certain occasions, here the Aztec ruler came and conducted important ceremonies once a year, and throughout the year pilgrims offered precious stones and figures at the shrine. Many of the offerings found here also related to water and the sea, in Aztec iconography, Tlaloc is usually depicted with goggle eyes and fangs. He is most often coupled with lightning, maize, and water in visual representations and this differs from the Maya version of Tlaloc, however, as the Maya version shows no specific relation to jaguars. The inhabitants of Teotihuacan thought of thunder as the rumblings of the jaguar and it is likely that this god was given these associations because he is also known as the provider among the Aztecs. Offerings dedicated to Tlaloc in Tenochtitlan were known to include several jaguar skulls, jaguars were considered the ultimate sacrificial animal due to their value. Tlalocs impersonators often wore the mask and heron-feather headdress, usually carrying a cornstalk or a symbolic lightning bolt wand. Along with this, Tlaloc is manifested in the form of boulders at shrine-sites, in Coatlinchan, a colossal statue weighing 168 tons was found that was thought to represent Tlaloc. However, one believes that the statue may not have been Tlaloc at all

23.
Chicomecoatl
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In Aztec mythology, Chicomecōātl seven snakes, was the Aztec goddess of agriculture during the Middle Culture period. She is sometimes called goddess of nourishment, a goddess of plenty and she is regarded as the female counterpart of the maize god Centeōtl, their symbol being an ear of corn. She is occasionally called Xilonen, who was married also to Tezcatlipoca and her appearance is mostly represented with red ochre on the face, paper headdress on top, water-flowers patterned shirt, and foam sandals on the bottom. She is also described as carrying a sun flower shield and she is also often appeared with attributes of Chalchiuhtlicue, such as her headdress and the short lines rubbing down her cheeks. She is usually distinguished by being shown carrying ears of maize

24.
Xochipilli
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Xochipilli was the god of art, games, beauty, dance, flowers, and song in Aztec mythology. His name contains the Nahuatl words xochitl and pilli, and hence means flower prince, as the patron of writing and painting, he was called Chicomexochitl the Seven-flower, but he could also be referred to as Macuilxochitl Five-flower. His wife was the human girl Mayahuel, and his sister was Xochiquetzal. As one of the responsible for fertility and agricultural produce, he was also associated with Tlaloc. Xochipilli corresponds to the Tonsured Maize God among the Classic Mayas, Xochipilli was also the patron of both homosexuals and male prostitutes, a role possibly resulting from his being absorbed from the Toltec civilization. He, among other gods, was depicted wearing a talisman known as an oyohualli, in the mid-19th century, a 16th-century Aztec statue of Xochipilli was unearthed on the side of the volcano Popocatépetl near Tlalmanalco. The statue is of a figure seated upon a temple-like base. The texts always use the flower in a spiritual sense. The association of the flower with the sun is also evident, one of the hieroglyphs for the sun is a four-petalled flower, and the feasts of the ninth month, dedicated to Huitzilopochtliupo, were entirely given over to flower offerings. The figure himself sits on the base, head tilted up, eyes open, jaw tensed, with his half open. The statue is housed in the Aztec hall of the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. It has been suggested by Wasson, Schultes, and Hofmann that the statue of Xochipilli represents a figure in the throes of entheogenic ecstasy. Wasson says that in the statues depiction Xochipilli is absorbed by temicxoch, dream flowers, I can think of nothing like it in the long and rich history of European art, Xochipilli absorbed in temicxoch. Maya maize god Media related to Xochipilli at Wikimedia Commons J. Paul Getty Museums in-depth interactive exploring the Museo Nacional de Antropologías 15th-century basalt figure of Xochipilli, includes a detailed exploration of psychotropic plants depicted

25.
Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli
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In Aztec religion, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli is the god of the planet Venus, the morning star. Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli was considered a dangerous and malevolent god, and was associated with Quetzalcoatl, the word comes from tlahuizcalpan dawn and tecuhtli lord. Motolinias Memoriales, the Histoyre du Mechique and the Annals of Cuauhtitlan relate that the Toltec ruler Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl became the star when he died. The Annals of Cuauhtitlan gives his year of death as 1 Reed, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli was believed to cause harm to people by shooting darts. According to the Annals of Cuauhtitlan, after Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl died, on 1 Rain, he shoots the rain, so that no rain falls, and on 1 Water, he causes drought. In the Aztec calendar, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli is patron of the beginning with the day 1 Snake. In this he is paired with Xiuhtecuhtli, the god of fire, History and Mythology of the Aztecs, The Codex Chimalpopoca. Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Ritual, Divination, and History in a Pictorial Aztec Manuscript

26.
Xiuhtecuhtli
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In Aztec mythology, Xiuhtecuhtli, was the god of fire, day and heat. He was the lord of volcanoes, the personification of life after death, warmth in cold, light in darkness and he was also named Cuezaltzin and Ixcozauhqui, and is sometimes considered to be the same as Huehueteotl, although Xiuhtecuhtli is usually shown as a young deity. Xiuhtecuhtli-Huehueteotl was one of the oldest and most revered of the indigenous pantheon, the cult of the God of Fire, of the Year, and of Turquoise perhaps began as far back as the middle Preclassic period. Turquoise was the equivalent of fire for Aztec priests. A small fire was kept alive at the sacred center of every Aztec home in honor of Xiuhtecuhtli. The Nahuatl word xihuitl means year as well as turquoise and fire, the Lord of the Year concept came from the Aztec belief that Xiuhtecuhtli was the North Star. In the 260-day ritual calendar, the deity was the patron of the day Atl, Xiuhtecuhtli was also one of the nine Lords of the Night and ruled the first hour of the night, named Cipactli. Scholars have long emphasized that this fire deity also has aquatic qualities, Xiuhtecuhtli dwelt inside an enclosure of turquoise stones, fortifying himself with turquoise bird water. He is the god of fire in relation to the cardinal directions, Xiuhtecuhtli was the patron god of the Aztec emperors, who were regarded as his living embodiment at their enthronement. The deity was one of the patron gods of the pochteca merchant class. Statuettes of the deity from the temple depict a male with his arms crossed. A sacred fire was kept burning in the temples of Xiuhtecuhtli. In gratitude for the gift of fire, the first mouthful of food from each meal was flung into the hearth, xiuhtecuhtlis face is painted with black and red pigment. On his head he has a paper crown painted with different colors, on top of the crown there are sprays of green feathers, like flames from a fire. He has feather tufts to each side, like pendants, toward his ears, on his back he has plumage resembling a dragons head, made of yellow feathers with marine conch shells. He has copper bells tied to the insteps of his feet, in his left hand he holds a shield with five greenstones, called chalchihuites, placed in the form of a cross on a thin gold plate that covered almost all the shield. In his right hand he has a kind of scepter that was a gold plate with a hole in the middle. Xiuhtecuhtli is closely associated with warriors and with rulership, and was considered a solar god

27.
Mictlantecuhtli
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Mictlantecuhtli, in Aztec mythology, was a god of the dead and the king of Mictlan, the lowest and northernmost section of the underworld. He was one of the gods of the Aztecs and was the most prominent of several gods and goddesses of death. The worship of Mictlantecuhtli sometimes involved ritual cannibalism, with human flesh being consumed in, two life-size clay statues of Mictlantecuhtli were found marking the entrances to the House of Eagles to the north of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. Mictlantecuhtli was 6 foot tall, and was depicted as a skeleton or a person wearing a toothy skull. Although his head was typically a skull, his eye sockets did contain eyeballs and his headdress was shown decorated with owl feathers and paper banners, and he wore a necklace of human eyeballs, while his earspools were made from human bones. He was not the only Aztec god to be depicted in this fashion, as other deities had skulls for heads or else wore clothing or decorations that incorporated bones. In the Aztec world, skeletal imagery was a symbol of fertility, health and abundance and he was often depicted wearing sandals as a symbol of his high rank as Lord of Mictlan. His arms were frequently depicted raised in a gesture, showing that he was ready to tear apart the dead as they entered his presence. In the Aztec codices Mictlantecuhtli is often depicted with his jaw open to receive the stars that descend into him during the daytime. His wife was Mictecacihuatl, and together they were said to dwell in a house in Mictlan. Mictlantecuhtli was associated with spiders, owls, bats, the hour, and the northern compass direction, known as Mictlampa. Mictlantecuhtli and his wife were the opposites and complements of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, mictlanteculhtli was the god of the day sign Itzcuintli, one of the 20 such signs recognised in the Aztec calendar, and was regarded as supplying the souls of those who were born on that day. He was seen as the source of souls for those born on the day of the 13-day week and was the fifth of the nine Night Gods of the Aztecs. He was also the secondary Week God for the week of the twenty-week cycle of the calendar, joining the sun god Tonatiuh to symbolise the dichotomy of light. In the Colonial Codex Vaticanus 3738, Mictlantecuhtli is labelled in Spanish as the lord of the underworld, Tzitzimitl, in Aztec mythology, after Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca created the world, they put their creation in order and placed Mictlantecuhtli and his wife, Mictecacihuatl, in the underworld. According to Aztec legend, the twin gods Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl were sent by the gods to steal the bones of the previous generation of gods from Mictlantecuhtli. The god of the sought to block Quetzalcoatls escape with the bones and, although he failed, he forced Quetzalcoatl to drop the bones. The shattered bones were collected by Quetzalcoatl and carried back to the land of the living, when a person died, they were interred with grave goods, which they carried with them on the long and dangerous journey to the underworld

28.
Itztlacoliuhqui
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In Aztec mythology, Itztlacoliuhqui is the god of frost. He also represents matter in its lifeless state, the Nahuatl name Itztlacoliuhqui is usually translated into English as Curved Obsidian Blade. J. Richard Andrews contends that this is a mistranslation, in the Aztec calendar, Itztlacoliuhqui is the lord of the thirteen days from 1 Lizard to 13 Vulture. The preceding thirteen days are ruled over by Patecatl, and the following thirteen by Tlazolteotl, the creation of this god appeared in the Aztec myth of creation. Tonatiuh, the sun god, demanded obedience and sacrifice from the gods before he will move. Enraged at his arrogance, the god of dawn and the planet Venus, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, however, the dart misses its mark, and the sun throws his own back at the morning star, piercing the Lord of Dawn through the head. At this moment, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli is transformed into the god of obsidian stone and coldness, Itztlacoliuhqui is a part of a holy trinity of birth, life, and death. He takes the place of death in this particular trinity, birth is taken by Tezcatlipoca and life by Itzpapalotl, Itztlacoliuhquis female counterpart. Itztlacoliuhquis iconography depicts a straw broom in his hand, symbolizing the function of this wintry death deity as the cleaner of the way for new life to emerge thereafter, februus Deities and personifications of seasons List of death deities Andrews, J. Richard

29.
Tezcatlipoca
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Tezcatlipoca was a central deity in Aztec religion, and his main festival was the Toxcatl ceremony celebrated in the month of May. Another talisman related to Tezcatlipoca was a disc worn as a chest pectoral and this talisman was carved out of abalone shell and depicted on the chest of both Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca in codex illustrations. He had many epithets which alluded to different aspects of his deity, Titlacauan /ˌtɪtləˈkaʊən/, Ipalnemoani, Necoc Yaotl, Tloque Nahuaque and Yohualli Èhecatl, Ome Acatl, when depicted he was usually drawn with a black and a yellow stripe painted across his face. He is often shown with his right foot replaced with a mirror, bone. Sometimes the mirror was shown on his chest, and sometimes smoke would emanate from the mirror, Tezcatlipocas nagual, his animal counterpart, was the jaguar and his jaguar aspect was the deity Tepeyollotl. In the Aztec ritual calendar the Tonalpohualli Tezcatlipoca ruled the trecena 1 Ocelotl —he was also patron of the days with the name Acatl, the Tezcatlipoca figure goes back to earlier Mesoamerican deities worshipped by the Olmec and Maya. Similarities exist with the deity of the Kiche Maya as described in the Popol Vuh. A central figure of the Popol Vuh was the god Tohil whose name means obsidian, there are few surviving representations of Tezcatlipoca into the present day. Due to the lack of surviving images, some have chosen to describe Tezcatlipoca as the invisible god, however, the fact that many images are difficult to identify as one god or another does not mean that no generalizations can be made about Tezcatlipocas appearance. There are also portrayals of his also being black in certain places. Depending on the half of his leg, the full length of his arms. Most commonly he is shown with horizontal bands, wearing a heron feather headdress, a loincloth, and knotted sandals with an armband. Tezcatlipoca is often shown carrying a shield with balls of either feathers or cotton, there are also several reference to momoztli. The priests of Tezcatlipoca often wore the ornaments of the god, common ornaments were white turkey feather headdresses, a paper loincloth, and a tzanatl stick with similar feathers and paper decorations. Another common practice was to cover themselves in black soot or ground charcoal while they were involved in activities at the temple or during rituals. They would also cover the sick and newly appointed king in a manner with a black ointment to encourage an association with the god. When the ritual called for it, priests would also dress up as Tezcatlipoca himself, More on the exact rituals, such as the Feast of Toxcatl will be mentioned later. Tezcatlipoca was often described as a rival of another important god of the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl became the ruler of the subsequent creation Sun of Water, and Tezcatlipoca destroyed the third creation The Sun of Wind by striking down Quetzalcoatl

30.
Ocelot
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The ocelot, also known as the dwarf leopard, is a wild cat distributed extensively within South America, including the islands of Trinidad and Margarita, Central America, and Mexico. North of Mexico, it is found only in the extreme southern part of Texas. Its fur was once regarded as particularly valuable, as a result, hundreds of thousands of ocelots were killed for their fur. The cat was listed as a Vulnerable from 1972 until 1996 and is now listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, the ocelot is a member of the genus Leopardus and is classified under the family Felidae. The name ocelot comes from the Nahuatl word ōcēlōtl, which refers to the jaguar rather than the ocelot. Another possible origin for the name is the Latin cellatus, in reference to the spotted coat. Other names for the ocelot include cunaguaro, manigordo, mathuntori, ocelote, onsa, pumillo, tigri-kati, the ocelot is between 55 and 100 centimetres in head-and-body length and weighs 8–16 kilograms. Larger individuals have occasionally been recorded, the thin tail, 26–45 centimetres long, is ringed or striped and is shorter than the hindlimbs. The round ears are marked with a white spot, in contrast with the black background. The eyes are brown, and gleam golden when exposed to light, ocelots have 28 to 30 teeth, and the dental formula is 3.1. 2–3.13.1.2.1. The subspecies differ mainly in cranial measurements, the fur is short and smooth, the back is basically creamy, tawny, yellowish, reddish grey or grey, while the neck and underside are white. The guard hairs are 1 centimetre long, while the fur on the underbelly measures 0.8 centimetres. The coat is marked with a variety of solid black markings – these vary from open or closed bands and stripes on the back, cheeks and flanks to small spots on the head. A few dark stripes run straight from the back of the neck up to the tip of the tail, a few horizontal streaks can be seen on the insides of the legs. English naturalist Richard Lydekker observed that the ocelot is one of the most difficult members of the family to describe. The spoor measures nearly 2 by 2 centimetres, the similar jaguar is notably larger and heavier, and has rosettes instead of spots and stripes. The ocelot is active around twilight and at night, and hence difficult to observe, however, it can be seen hunting in daytime as well – especially on cloudy or rainy days. The ocelot is active for 12 to 14 hours every day and it rests mainly during the day and in a variety of places, such as tree branches, depressions at the base of trees or under fallen trees

31.
Jaguar
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The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only extant Panthera species native to the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, the jaguars present range extends from Southwestern United States and Mexico across much of Central America and south to Paraguay and northern Argentina. Apart from a known and possibly breeding population in Arizona and the bootheel of New Mexico and this spotted cat most closely resembles the leopard physically, although it is usually larger and of sturdier build and its behavioral and habitat characteristics are closer to those of the tiger. While dense rainforest is its habitat, the jaguar will range across a variety of forested. Its preferred habitats are swamps and wooded regions, but jaguars also live in scrublands. The jaguar is notable, along with the tiger, as a feline that enjoys swimming, the jaguar is largely a solitary, opportunistic, stalk-and-ambush predator at the top of the food chain. It is a species, playing an important role in stabilizing ecosystems. The jaguar has a powerful bite, even relative to the other big cats. This allows it to pierce the shells of armored reptiles and to employ an unusual killing method, the jaguar is a near threatened species and its numbers are declining. Threats include loss and fragmentation of habitat, while international trade in jaguars or their parts is prohibited, the cat is still frequently killed by humans, particularly in conflicts with ranchers and farmers in South America. Although reduced, its range remains large, given its historical distribution, the jaguar has featured prominently in the mythology of numerous indigenous American cultures, including those of the Maya and Aztec. The word jaguar comes to English from one of the Tupi–Guarani languages, presumably the Amazonian trade language Tupinambá, the Tupian word, yaguara beast, is sometimes translated as dog. The specific word for jaguar is yaguareté, with the suffix -eté meaning real or true, the first component of its taxonomic designation, Panthera, is Latin, from the Greek word for leopard, πάνθηρ, the type species for the genus. Onca is the Portuguese onça, with the cedilla dropped for reasons, found in English as ounce for the snow leopard. It derives from the Latin lyncea lynx, with the letter L confused with the definite article, the jaguar, Panthera onca, is the only extant New World member of the genus Panthera.8 million years ago. Phylogenetic studies generally have shown the clouded leopard is basal to this group, the position of the remaining species varies between studies and is effectively unresolved. Based on morphological evidence, British zoologist Reginald Pocock concluded the jaguar is most closely related to the leopard, however, DNA evidence is inconclusive and the position of the jaguar relative to the other species varies between studies. Fossils of extinct Panthera species, such as the European jaguar, analysis of jaguar mitochondrial DNA has dated the species lineage to between 280,000 and 510,000 years ago, later than suggested by fossil records

32.
Xipe Totec
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Xipe Totec was also known by various other names, including Tlatlauhca, Tlatlauhqui Tezcatlipoca and Youalahuan. The Tlaxcaltecs and the Huexotzincas worshipped a version of the deity under the name of Camaxtli, and the god has been identified with Yopi, the female equivalent of Xipe Totec was the goddess Xilonen-Chicomecoatl. Xipe Totec connected agricultural renewal with warfare and he flayed himself to give food to humanity, symbolic of the way maize seeds lose their outer layer before germination and of snakes shedding their skin. Without his skin, he was depicted as a golden god, Xipe Totec was believed by the Aztecs to be the god that invented war. His insignia included the pointed cap and rattle staff, which was the war attire for the Mexica emperor and he had a temple called Yopico within the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. Xipe Totec is associated with pimples, inflammation and eye diseases and this deity is of uncertain origin. Xipe Totec was widely worshipped in central Mexico at the time of the Spanish Conquest, representations of the god have been found as far away as Mayapan in the Yucatán Peninsula. The worship of Xipe Totec was common along the Gulf Coast during the Early Postclassic, the deity probably became an important Aztec god as a result of the Aztec conquest of the Gulf Coast in the middle of the fifteenth century. Xipe Totec appears in codices with his right hand upraised and his left hand extending towards the front, Xipe Totec is represented wearing flayed human skin, usually with the flayed skin of the hands falling loose from the wrists. His hands are bent in a position that appears to hold a ceremonial object. His body is painted yellow on one side and tan on the other. His mouth, lips, neck, hands and legs are sometimes painted red, in some cases, some parts of the human skin covering is painted yellowish-gray. The eyes are not visible, the mouth is open and the ears are perforated and he frequently had vertical stripes running down from his forehead to his chin, running across the eyes. He was sometimes depicted with a shield and carrying a container filled with seeds. One Xipe Totec sculpture was carved from rock, and portrays a man standing on a small pedestal. The chest has an incision, made in order to extract the heart of the victim before flaying and it is likely that sculptures of Xipe Totec were ritually dressed in the flayed skin of sacrificial victims and wore sandals. The worshippers of Xipe Totec emerging from the rotting, flayed skin after twenty days symbolised rebirth and the renewal of the seasons, the casting off of the old and the growth of new vegetation. New vegetation was represented by putting on the new skin of a flayed captive because it symbolized the vegetation the earth puts on when the rain comes, the living god lay concealed underneath the superficial veneer of death, ready to burst forth like a germinating seed

33.
Itzpapalotl
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She is the mother of Mixcoatl and is particularly associated with the moth Rothschildia orizaba from the family Saturniidae. Some of her associations are birds and fire, itzpapalotls name can either mean obsidian butterfly or clawed butterfly, the latter meaning seems most likely. Its quite possible that clawed butterfly refers to the bat and in some instances Itzpapalotl is depicted with bat wings, however, she can also appear with clear butterfly or eagle attributes. Her wings are obsidian or tecpatl knife tipped and she could appear in the form of a beautiful, seductive woman or terrible goddess with a skeletal head and butterfly wings supplied with stone blades. Although the identity remains inconclusive, the Zapotec deity named Goddess 2J by Alfonso Caso, in many instances Goddess 2J, whose image is found on ceramic urns, is identified with bats. In folklore, bats are called black butterflies. Itzpapalotl is the patron of the day and associated with the stars Cozcuauhtli, the Trecena 1 House is one of the five western trecena dates dedicated to the cihuateteo, or women who had died in childbirth. Not only was Itzpapalotl considered one of the cihuateteo herself, but she was one of the tzitzimime. As the legend goes, Itzpapalotl fell from heaven along with Tzitzimime and several other such as scorpions. Itzpapalotl wore a cloak so that no one could see her. At some times, she was said to have dressed up like a lady of the Mexican Court, caking her face with white powder and her fingers tapered into the claws of a jaguar, and her toes into eagles claws. According to the Manuscript of 1558, section VII, Itzpapalotl was one of two divine 2-headed doe-deers who temporarily transformed themselves into women in order to seduce men, Itzpapalotl approached the two cloud serpents named Xiuhnel and Mimich, who transformed themselves into men. To Xiuhnel, Itzpapalotl said Drink, Xiuhnel, Xiuhnel drank the blood and then immediately lay down with her. Devoured him, tore open his breast, descended into a thorny barrel cactus, fell into it, and the woman fell down after him. Orizaba the Moth Fairy, a villain in Elena of Avalor, was inspired by Itzpapalotl

34.
Xolotl
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In Aztec mythology, Xolotl was the god with associations to both lightning and death. He was associated with the sunset and would guard the Sun as it traveled through the underworld every night and this deity and a dog were believed to lead the soul on its journey to the underworld. He was commonly depicted as a monstrous dog, Xolotl was the god of fire and lightning. He was also god of twins, monsters, misfortune, sickness, Xolotl is the canine brother and twin of Quetzalcoatl, the pair being sons of the virgin Coatlicue. He is the personification of Venus, the evening star. He is the god of monstrosities who wears the spirally-twisted wind jewel. His job was to protect the sun from the dangers of the underworld, as a double of Quetzalcoatl, he carries his conch-like ehecailacacozcatl or wind jewel. In a sense, this re-creation of life is reacted every night when Xolotl guides the sun through the underworld, in the tonalpohualli, Xolotl rules over day Ollin and over trecena 1-Cozcacuauhtli. His empty eye sockets are explained by the legend says that in Teotihuacan the gods had decided to sacrifice themselves for the newly created sun. Xolotl withdrew from this sacrifice and wept so much his eyes out of their sockets. According to the creation recounted in the Florentine Codex, after the Fifth Sun was initially created, Ehecatl consequently began slaying all other gods to induce the newly created Sun into movement. Xolotl, however, was unwilling to die in order to give movement to the new Sun, Xolotl transformed himself into a young maize plant with two stalks, a doubled maguey plant, and an amphibious animal. Xolotl is thus a master transformer, in the end, Ehecatl nevertheless succeeded in finding and killing Xolotl. In art, Xolotl was typically depicted as a dog-headed man, an incense burner in the form of a skeletal canine depicts Xolotl. As a psychopomp, Xolotl would guide the dead on their journey to Mictlan and his two spirit animal forms are the Xoloitzcuintli dog and the water salamander species known as the Axolotl. Dogs were often victims of sacrifice, so that they could accompany their master on his voyage through Mictlan. Their main duty was to help their owners cross a deep river, Xoloitzcuintli is the official name of the Mexican Hairless Dog, a pre-Columbian canine breed from Mesoamerica dating back to over 3500 years ago. This is one of many dog breeds in the Americas

35.
Tecpatl
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In the Aztec culture, a tecpatl was a flint or obsidian knife with a lanceolate figure and double-edged blade, with elongated ends. Both ends could be rounded or pointed, but other designs were made with an attached to a handle. It can be represented with the top half red, reminiscent of the color of blood, in representations of human sacrifice and the rest white, indicating the color of the flint blade. It was the sign of the day, the twentieth day of the month of the Aztec calendar. The Tecpatl knife was used for human sacrifice by the Aztecs. Although it may have only limited use on the battlefield. Tecpatl, is one of the most complex iconographic symbols of Aztec mythology and this knife expresses multiple meanings that carry a complex view of the world which are closely associated with the notions of origin and human sacrifice. The Tecpatl was born in the height of heaven shaped as a knife, and was thrown down by his brother, and it was destined to descend from heaven to earth. It falls in Chicomoztoc primary array of peoples, fragmenting into 1600 pieces, and from those fragments a thousand and six hundred gods emerge and these gods emerging from the Seven Caves are the Centzonmimixcoa. Then they went into a cave, and upon entering, their mother gave birth to five more Mimixcoa. In the version of the Legend of the Five Suns, Tecpatl becomes temporal marker of the birth of the Centzonmimixcoa, according to Bernardino de Sahagún and Diego Durán they present the homology between this myth and ritual. When the other women looked at what was in it, it was a flint and iron were sandeel, meanwhile, Duran tells his priests sought a child cot and put into it a flint knife with which they sacrificed the one they called the son of Cihuacoatl. In the version where the Centzonmimixcoa are born from the Tecpatl, in the version that is temporary marker Tecpatl birth, the mother is Iztac Chalchiuhtlicue, and in rites the mother of Tecpatl is Cihuacoatl. In Aztec mythology, the tecpatl was sometimes drawn as a flint blade, sharpened with some notches on the edge. Tecpatl was associated with Northern cardinal point, the dark place of eternal stillness and rest of the dead. The ancient Anahuac, considered the Tecpatl as a symbol of Xiuhtecuhtli tletl and it also relates to Ehecatl, since in the codices its represented by high winds, meaning that the air cuts like razor, so it represented xopantla, the time of high winds. The image of the tecpatl was a symbol and therefore ruled agricultural events. Their patron gods were, Chalchiuhtotolin and Tezcatlipoca, in the trecena of Ce Tecpatl, the gods were Tonatiuh and Mictlantecuhtli

36.
Chalchiuhtotolin
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In Aztec mythology, Chalchiuhtotolin /tʃɑːltʃjuːtoʊtoʊlin/ was a god of disease and plague. Chalchihuihtotolin, the Jewelled Fowl, Tezcatlipocas nagual, Chalchihuihtotolin is a symbol of powerful sorcery. Tezcatlipoca can tempt humans into self-destruction, but when he takes his form he can also cleanse them of contamination, absolve them of guilt. In the tonalpohualli, Chalchihuihtotolin rules over day Tecpatl and over trecena 1-Atl, the preceding thirteen days are ruled over by Xolotl. Chalchihuihtotolin has an evil side to him. Another depiction of Chalchiuhtotolins evil side includes the sharp silver of his talons and his nahual, of course, is a turkey in which he terrorizes villages, bringing disease and sickness

37.
Xochiquetzal
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In pre-Hispanic Maya culture, a similar figure is Goddess I. The name Xōchiquetzal is a compound of xōchitl and quetzalli, in Classical Nahuatl morphology, the first element in a compound modifies the second, and thus the goddess name can literally be taken to mean “flower precious feather”, or ”flower quetzal feather”. Her alternative name, Ichpōchtli, corresponds to a usage of ichpōchtli. By connotation, Xochiquetzal is also representative of human desire, pleasure and she was followed by a retinue consisting of birds and butterflies. Worshippers wore animal and flower masks at a festival, held in her honor every eight years and her twin was Xochipilli and her husband was Tlaloc, until Tezcatlipoca kidnapped her and she was forced to marry him. At one point, she was married to Centeotl and Xiuhtecuhtli. By Mixcoatl, she was the mother of Quetzalcoatl, Ichpōchtli is an alternative form of Xochiquetzal representative of beauty, sex, crafts, fertility, dance, music, singing, weaving, magic, and love spells. Anthropologist Hugo Nutini identifies her with the Virgin of Ocotlan in his article on patron saints in Tlaxcala, ahuiateteo Ahwahnee Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli Xochipilli Description of the deity on Azteccalendar. com

38.
Aztec calendar
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The Aztec or Mexica calendar is the calendar system that was used by the Aztecs as well as other Pre-Columbian peoples of central Mexico. It is one of the Mesoamerican calendars, sharing the basic structure of calendars from throughout ancient Mesoamerica, the calendar consisted of a 365-day calendar cycle called xiuhpohualli and a 260-day ritual cycle called tonalpohualli. These two cycles formed a 52-year century, sometimes called the calendar round. The xiuhpohualli is considered to be the calendar, since it is based on the sun. The tonalpohualli consists of a cycle of 260 days, each day signified by a combination of a number from 1 to 13 and this cycle of number and day signs would continue similarly until the 20th week, which would start on 1 Rabbit, and end on 13 Flower. It would take a full 260 days for the two cycles to realign and repeat the sequence back on 1 Crocodile, the set of day signs used in central Mexico is identical to that used by Mixtecs, and to a lesser degree similar to those of other Mesoamerican calendars. Each of the day signs also bears an association with one of the four cardinal directions, there is some variation in the way the day signs were drawn or carved. Those here were taken from the Codex Magliabechiano, wind and Rain are represented by images of their associated gods, Ehecatl and Tlaloc. Other marks on the stone showed the current world and also the worlds before this one, each world was called a sun, and each sun had its own species of inhabitants. The Aztecs believed that they were in the sun and like all of the suns before them they would also eventually perish due to their own imperfections. The 260 days of the calendar were grouped into twenty periods of thirteen days each. Scholars usually refer to these weeks as trecenas, using a Spanish term derived from trece thirteen. The original Nahuatl term is not known, each trecena is named according to the calendar date of the first day of the thirteen days in that trecena. In addition, each of the twenty trecenas in the 260-day cycle had its own deity, In ancient times the year was composed of eighteen months. The days of the year were counted twenty by twenty, Diego Durán Xiuhpohualli is the Aztec year count. One year consists of 360 named days and 5 nameless and these extra days are thought to be unlucky. The year was broken into 18 periods of twenty days each, the Aztec word for moon is metztli but whatever name was used for these periods is unknown. Through Spanish usage, the 20-day period of the Aztec calendar has become known as a veintena

39.
Maya calendar
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The Maya calendar is a system of calendars used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and in many modern communities in the Guatemalan highlands, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico. The essentials of the Maya calendar are based upon a system which had been in use throughout the region. It shares many aspects with calendars employed by other earlier Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Zapotec and Olmec, the Maya calendar consists of several cycles or counts of different lengths. The 260-day count is known to scholars as the Tzolkin, or Tzolkin, the Tzolkin was combined with a 365-day vague solar year known as the Haab to form a synchronized cycle lasting for 52 Haab, called the Calendar Round. The Calendar Round is still in use by groups in the Guatemalan highlands. A different calendar was used to longer periods of time. It is a count of days since a mythological starting-point, the GMT correlation was chosen by John Eric Sydney Thompson in 1935 on the basis of earlier correlations by Joseph Goodman in 1905, Juan Martínez Hernández in 1926 and Thompson himself in 1927. By its linear nature, the Long Count was capable of being extended to refer to any date far into the past or future and this calendar involved the use of a positional notation system, in which each position signified an increasing multiple of the number of days. The Maya numeral system was vigesimal, and each unit of a given position represented 20 times the unit of the position which preceded it. An important exception was made for the place value, which instead represented 18 ×20, or 360 days. It should be noted however that the cycles of the Long Count are independent of the solar year, less-prevalent or poorly understood cycles, combinations and calendar progressions were also tracked. An 819-day Count is attested in a few inscriptions, repeating sets of 9 days associated with different groups of deities, animals, and other significant concepts are also known. The tzolkin is the commonly employed by Mayanist researchers for the Maya Sacred Round or 260-day calendar. The word tzolkin is a neologism coined in Yucatec Maya, to mean count of days, the various names of this calendar as used by precolumbian Maya peoples are still debated by scholars. The Aztec calendar equivalent was called Tonalpohualli, in the Nahuatl language, the tzolkin calendar combines twenty day names with the thirteen day numbers to produce 260 unique days. It is used to determine the time of religious and ceremonial events, Each successive day is numbered from 1 up to 13 and then starting again at 1. Separately from this, every day is given a name in sequence from a list of 20 day names, Some systems started the count with 1 Imix, followed by 2 Ik,3 Akbal, etc. up to 13 Ben. The day numbers then start again at 1 while the sequence continues onwards, so the next days in the sequence are 1 Ix,2 Men,3 Kib,4 Kaban,5 Etznab,6 Kawak

40.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
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The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas and their descendants. The term Amerindian is used in Quebec, the Guianas, Indigenous peoples of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans or American Indians, and Alaska Natives. Application of the term Indian originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for Asia, eventually, the Americas came to be known as the West Indies, a name still used to refer to the islands of the Caribbean Sea. This led to the blanket term Indies and Indians for the indigenous inhabitants, although some indigenous peoples of the Americas were traditionally hunter-gatherers—and many, especially in the Amazon basin, still are—many groups practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the world is a testament to their time, although some societies depended heavily on agriculture, others practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions the indigenous peoples created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, chiefdoms, states, and empires. Many parts of the Americas are still populated by peoples, some countries have sizable populations, especially Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Greenland, Guatemala, Mexico. At least a different indigenous languages are spoken in the Americas. Some, such as the Quechuan languages, Aymara, Guaraní, Mayan languages, many also maintain aspects of indigenous cultural practices to varying degrees, including religion, social organization, and subsistence practices. Like most cultures, over time, cultures specific to many indigenous peoples have evolved to incorporate traditional aspects, some indigenous peoples still live in relative isolation from Western culture and a few are still counted as uncontacted peoples. The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are the subject of ongoing research. According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation. During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the bridge of Beringia that joined Siberia to northwest North America. Alaska was a glacial refugium because it had low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of North America, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska for thousands of years. Indigenous genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single population, one that developed in isolation. The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10–20,000 years, around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond. These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets. Another route proposed involves migration - either on foot or using primitive boats - along the Pacific Northwest coast to the south, archeological evidence of the latter would have been covered by the sea level rise of more than 120 meters since the last ice age

41.
Mesoamerica
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It is one of six areas in the world where ancient civilization arose independently, and the second in the Americas along with Norte Chico in present-day northern coastal Peru. As a cultural area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures, while Mesoamerican civilization did know of the wheel and basic metallurgy, neither of these technologies became culturally important. Among the earliest complex civilizations was the Olmec culture, which inhabited the Gulf coast of Mexico and extended inland, frequent contact and cultural interchange between the early Olmec and other cultures in Chiapas, Guatemala and Oaxaca laid the basis for the Mesoamerican cultural area. All this was facilitated by considerable regional communications in ancient Mesoamerica and this Formative period saw the spread of distinct religious and symbolic traditions, as well as artistic and architectural complexes. In the subsequent Preclassic period, complex urban polities began to develop among the Maya, with the rise of such as El Mirador, Calakmul and Tikal. Mesoamerica is one of three regions of the world where writing is known to have independently developed. Upon the collapse of Teotihuacán around AD600, competition between several important political centers in central Mexico, such as Xochicalco and Cholula, ensued. During the early period, Central Mexico was dominated by the Toltec culture, Oaxaca by the Mixtec. Towards the end of the period, the Aztecs of Central Mexico built a tributary empire covering most of central Mesoamerica. The distinct Mesoamerican cultural tradition ended with the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, over the next centuries, Mesoamerican indigenous cultures were gradually subjected to Spanish colonial rule. The exact geographic extent of Mesoamerica has varied through time, as the civilization extended North and South from its heartland in southern Mexico, Mesoamerica is recognized as a near-prototypical cultural area, and the term is now fully integrated in the standard terminology of pre-Columbian anthropological studies. Conversely, the sister terms Aridoamerica and Oasisamerica, which refer to northern Mexico, 10° and 22° northern latitude, Mesoamerica possesses a complex combination of ecological systems, topographic zones, and environmental contexts. A main distinction groups these different niches into two categories, the lowlands and the altiplanos, or highlands. In the low-lying regions, sub-tropical and tropical climates are most common, as is true for most of the coastline along the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The highlands show much more diversity, ranging from dry tropical to cold mountainous climates. The rainfall varies from the dry Oaxaca and north Yucatan to the humid southern Pacific, several distinct sub-regions within Mesoamerica are defined by a convergence of geographic and cultural attributes. These sub-regions are more conceptual than culturally meaningful, and the demarcation of their limits is not rigid, the Maya area, for example, can be divided into two general groups, the lowlands and highlands. The lowlands are further divided into the southern and northern Maya lowlands, the southern Maya lowlands are generally regarded as encompassing northern Guatemala, southern Campeche and Quintana Roo in Mexico, and Belize

The Mixtec , , or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of …

Turquoise mosaic mask. Mixtec-Aztec, 1400-1521 AD

Plate 37 of the Codex Vindobonensis. The central scene supposedly depicts the origin of the Mixtecs as a people whose ancestors sprang from a tree.

The stucco reliefs in the Tomb 1 of Zaachila (The Valley, Oaxaca) reveal a remarkable influence from Mixtec art. It is likely that the tomb belongs to a person whose name is registered in the Nuttall Codex. Tomb 1 of Zaachila, Central Valleys of Oaxaca, Late Postclassic.

Stone sculpture representing the head of the Aztec god Xolotl. "An important figure within the rituals surrounding the god Quetzalcoatl is Xolotl, his twin, a peculiar god in the form of a dog, identifiable by the many wrinkles on the sacred canine and the two rectangular protuberances on its head, relating it with the heavenly fire."

Mesoamerican calendars are the calendrical systems devised and used by the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. …

The back of Stela C from Tres Zapotes, an Olmec archaeological site. This is the second oldest Long Count date yet discovered. The numerals 7.16.6.16.18 translate to September 1, 32 BCE (Gregorian). The glyphs surrounding the date are what is thought to be one of the few surviving examples of Epi-Olmec script.